The important 2012 Keeneland November breeding stock sale is the first major international mixed sale this season.

By Joe Nevills
The road to recovery for the North
American bloodstock market has featured
many small steps over the course of the
past few years.
Those steps have gotten larger in 2013,
with record-setting sales throughout
the 2-year-old and yearling sale seasons
and a return to a form not seen since the
market crash of the late 2000s in the industry’s bellwether auction, the Keeneland
September yearling sale.
Next, the industry’s long-term futures
market – broodmares and weanlings –

will be tested in the Keeneland November
breeding stock sale Nov. 5-14 in Lexington,
Ky. Each session of the 10-day sale begins
at 10 a.m. Eastern.
A total of 3,602 horses were cataloged for
this year’s sale, down 9 percent from 3,958
last year. Included in this year’s catalog,
before outs, are 1,739 broodmares and
broodmare prospects, 1,364 weanlings,
481 horses of racing age, 10 yearlings, and
eight stallions.
As the first major international mixed
sale this season, the Keeneland November sale will be a key measuring stick
for a segment of the market that often is

Keeneland photo

the slowest to react to change, both from
industry trends and from outside stimuli.
With that said, the breeding stock
sector will have ground to make up
once the headline-grabbing seven-figure
horses leave the ring and the rank-andfile of the middle market begins to take
shape, as buyers and sellers continue to
recover from the economic crash of 2008
and the auction market’s bottoming out
in 2010.
Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director
of sales, said time has helped heal those

Continued from page 13
wounds, and that another year of distance
should maintain the positive trajectory.
“The magic year of 2008 that we seem
to go back to had such a huge effect on
everybody, but it made people who are
into long-term investments [scarce]; they
didn’t want to own there for a while, so we
had a lot of mares that were sold,” Russell
said. “I think now that we’re getting
further away from 2008, we’re starting to
see people wanting to reinvest into broodmares and look to the long term. Having
successful yearling sales for the past few
years, it gets the confidence to come back
into the market for people who are into
long-term investments.”
A common thread at this year’s major
auctions has been a renewed willingness
among buyers to go after what they want,
especially for horses at the top end of the
market. This, in turn, has trickled down
to the middle and lower levels, as illustrated by the strong median figures at this
autumn’s yearling sales.
Russell said he expected buyer interest
to make the leap into the next segment
of the market at the Keeneland November sale. He also noted that the success
of weanling-to-yearling pinhooks in 2013
could motivate buyers of young horses to
return in force.
“It’s slightly different, but I think
the buying enthusiasm is strong at the
moment, so I think that will carry on,”
Russell said. “Yes, we’re going away from
the yearlings and into the production

area, and there’s a lot of people who don’t
buy mares and foals – they just want to
buy the offspring – but the enthusiasm of
the market is very good.”
An increased demand for breeding
stock would indeed be a positive indicator of the market’s recovery. However,
the relatively slow reflexes of the mixed
sector, compared with yearling and juvenile markets, where horses are closer to
reaching the racetrack, means that the
supply probably will need time to catch up
to that demand.
As the industry changed through the
lean years, numerous farms culled their
broodmare bands and elected to keep a
tight grip on the very best stock they had.
Reiley McDonald of Eaton Sales predicted
that this would put a premium on highquality broodmares during the November
sales.
“I’d have to expect that the broodmare
market’s going to be strong just because
it seems as if fewer and fewer really good
mares are coming to market anymore,”
McDonald said. “It seems as if this business has grown in the number of people
with large amounts of capital behind
them, and those people want to be in the
breeding business and don’t want to sell
their horses that have been good broodmares for them, or sell good racemares
that are potentially top broodmares.”
Even venturing into the middle and
lower markets, the clearance rates of this
year’s sales and the number of horses
attracting several bidders gave consignors hope that the momentum will carry

2,414 horses for $143,025,600, an average price of $59,248, and a
median of $22,000. Gross decreased 30 percent, average was down
27 percent, and median declined 8 percent. Borges Torrealba Holdings bought multiple Grade 1 winner Pure Clan, consigned by Hill ‘n’
Dale Sales Agency, agent, for $4,500,000 to top the sale.
Internet: Live streaming at www.keeneland.com

DAILY RACING FORM

Sunday, November 3, 2013

PAGE 15

into the breeding stock portion of the sales
calendar.
“All the yearling sales were positive,
and I think it’ll have to transfer into
November on every level of the market,”
said Pat Costello of Paramount Sales. “The
middle market was strong in September,
so I think people will want to replenish
mares.”
The ever-looming factor leading up to
both Keeneland November and the FasigTipton Kentucky select fall mixed sale
that precedes it, is the impact that the
Breeders’ Cup will have on the catalog
updates.
The fallout from the marquee races will
be felt twofold when the focus shifts to the
auction ring. The first and most directly
affected group will be the horses who will
ship in after competing in a Breeders’ Cup
race. A win or strong effort on that stage
can greatly spike buyer enthusiasm on a
horse.
Among the horses entered in the Breeders’ Cup who are cataloged in the Keeneland November sale are champion Groupie
Doll (Filly and Mare Sprint), Lady of
Shamrock (Filly and Mare Turf), Renee’s
Titan (Filly and Mare Sprint), Street Girl
(Distaff), Worldly (Marathon), and Laugh
Track (Sprint).
“If you ever want to see what a Breeders’ Cup win can do, just look at Royal
Delta,” Russell said, referencing the twotime champion mare who sold to Ben Leon
at the 2011 November sale for $8.5 million

Continued from page 15
just days after winning the Ladies’ Classic. “She was going to be very expensive,
but I think the [price] was obviously based
on the fact that she won at the Breeders’
Cup the Friday beforehand.”
The second group subject to the ripple
effect of the Breeders’ Cup will be the
broodmares and weanlings who are
producers or siblings of Breeders’ Cup
runners. While the potential price swing
is perhaps not as dramatic as for the
horses who run in the races themselves,
a timely major update never hurts when
trying to sell a horse.

drf.com/breeding

Also of note, the November sale will
feature a horses-of-racing-age portion
Nov. 12, largely consisting of offerings
who competed for WinStar Farm, Stonestreet Stables, and Adena Springs. These
will be offered as racing or breeding prospects.
“WinStar started that a couple years
ago, and this year we have the Adena
Springs consignment in there, too, so the
horses-of-racing-age segment has shaped
up very well,” Russell said. “It’s really
gained momentum.”
Last year’s Keeneland November sale
finished behind the 2011 edition in average, median, and gross receipts, but it

lacked the benefit of two record-setting
dispersals that helped propel trade two
years ago: those of the late Edward P.
Evans’s Spring Hill Farm and the late
Prince Saud bin Khaled’s Palides Investments NV, which sold Royal Delta.
A total of 2,414 horses sold last year for
revenue of $143,025,600, down 30 percent
from the 2011 sale. The average sale price
of $59,248 represented a 27 percent decline,
while the median fell 8 percent to $22,000.
The sale was topped by Pure Clan, a
multiple Grade 1-winning Pure Prize
mare who sold to Borges Torrealba Holdings for $4.5 million. She went through the
ring in foal to Bernardini.

Dispersals among Keeneland highlights
By Nicole Russo
A star-studded catalog for the Keeneland November breeding stock sale got a
bit of added sparkle with the dispersals
of two prominent breeding operations
responsible for some of the standout fillies
and mares of the past five years – E. Paul
Robsham Stables and the estate of the late
Eric Kronfeld.
The Robsham family has been involved
in racing for three decades, and Joyce
Robsham continued to operate the stable
following the death of her husband, Paul,
in 2004. She has now elected to disperse
her breeding stock; the group of 24 horses
cataloged, with Lane’s End as agent,
includes Grade 1 winner Awesome Maria.
“It’s a terrific group of horses,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Walt Robertson said. “The percentage of mares that
have either won or produced major stakes
horses is just fantastic. It tells you that over
the years, they only kept what worked.
They have a strict culling process.”
Kronfeld, best known for breeding 2010
Horse of the Year Zenyatta, died in May at
age 71 following a battle with cancer. His
family has elected to disperse his breeding
and young racing stock, including Eblouissante, a winning half-sister to Zenyatta.
Eight horses are cataloged and will be
consigned by Don Robinson’s Winter
Quarter Farm near Lexington, Ky., which
boarded Kronfeld’s stock and foaled and
raised Zenyatta.
“I think it’s a huge opportunity for the
Thoroughbred industry and breeders,”
Robinson said. “It’s pretty exciting to
offer under other circumstances, but [had
Kronfeld not died], Eblouissante would
have retired [to Winter Quarter], and we
would have had a number of foals from
her. It’s kind of like selling the farm –
that’s what’s very sad. You’re not selling
the crop – you’re selling the farm.”
Paul Robsham was a prominent real
estate developer and philanthropist, and
he and Joyce became involved in Thoroughbred racing in 1983. The couple
bred and raced the Private Account
mare Pretty Discreet, the winner of the
Alabama Stakes in 1995. She became
their foundation mare, producing Grade
1 winners and young sires Discreet
Cat and Discreetly Mine, as well as the
unraced Discreetly Awesome, the dam of
Awesome Maria. That mare, by Maria’s
Mon, earned $1,114,875 while capturing
seven graded stakes, including the Grade

Barbara D. Livingston

Eblouissante, a half-sister of Zenyatta, will be sold at Keeneland this month.
1 Ogden Phipps Handicap.
Discreetly Awesome, in foal to Malibu
Moon, and Awesome Maria, in foal
to Giant’s Causeway, are part of the
dispersal. Also included are Discreetly
Awesome’s 2-year-old filly by Street Cry,
her yearling Bernardini colt, and her
weanling Smart Strike filly.
Other Robsham dispersal horses
include Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes winner
R Heat Lightning, in foal to Bernardini,
and her weanling Medaglia d’Oro filly.
The Robshams also campaigned last
year’s Kentucky Oaks runner-up, Broadway’s Alibi, who will be offered in foal to
Smart Strike.
Kronfeld, the owner of a New York-based
investment company, became involved
in the racing industry in 1975 with the
purchase of two horses in England. Among
his early successes was Mrs. Penny, a dual
champion in England.
Kronfeld’s association with Robinson began in the 1980s, when the owner
sent mares to board at Winter Quarter –
including the winning Forli mare For the
Flag. The stakes-producing mare foaled
the Kris S. filly Vertigineux toward the
end of her broodmare career, and the
latter went on to produce three standout
runners in succession. After producing stakes winner Where’s Bailey and
multiple Grade 1 winner and millionaire
Balance, Vertigineux produced Zenyatta,
a champion three seasons in succession
while winning 19 of 20 starts for Jerry and
Ann Moss.
Eblouissante was Vertigineux’s sixth
foal and the last owned by Kronfeld. He

privately sold the mare to Coolmore in
2008, when she was carrying the Bernardini filly, and negotiated a deal to keep the
foal. Eblouissante, trained by John Shirreffs, won her first two career starts, both in
California, before finishing last of six in
the Grade 3 Shuvee Handicap on July 20
at Saratoga after becoming unruly in the
gate. The filly, who has posted four works
since, is offered as a racing or broodmare
prospect.
“This particular filly, I think, is just
extraordinary,” Robinson said of Eblouissante. “She probably couldn’t be bought
if she were a stakes winner. She’s by the
right sire, she’s gorgeous, she’s big and
beautiful, and John Shirreffs will tell you
she has a ton of ability. It’s just a tricky
family to train, and she’s always been
with, I think, the best guy in the universe
to ever train that family.”
In addition to Eblouissante, the dispersal includes four young, unraced fillies
whom Kronfeld had planned to campaign.
This group includes 2-year-olds Pine and
Dandy (Lemon Drop Kid), who is from the
family of Horse of the Year Havre de Grace
and Grade 1 winner Riskaverse, and Lady
Catelyn (Malibu Moon), who is from the
family of Grade 1 winners Pleasant Home,
Point of Entry, and Pine Island.
“It’s just a terrific honor that they have
chosen us [to offer the consignment],”
Robertson said. “I just wish Eric was still
here. He left us in a hurry. He’s been a
friend of mine for a long time.”
For more on the breeding programs of
Robsham Stables and Eric Kronfeld, please
visit www.drf.com/breeding.

PAGE 18

Sunday, November 3, 2013

DAILY RACING FORM

drf.com/breeding

Weanlings from New sires Arrive
By Patrick Reed
A diverse group of young sires whose
first crops arrived this year will be represented at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky
November and Keeneland November
sales, a roster that includes three Eclipse
Award winners and a proven 1 1/4-mile to
1 1/2-mile classic dirt horse who each have
more than 18 weanlings cataloged.
Drosselmeyer, the upset winner of the
2010 Belmont Stakes and the 2011 Breeders’
Cup Classic, leads all first-crop weanling
sires at Keeneland with 29 foals cataloged
and also has one offered at Fasig-Tipton.
The 6-year-old Distorted Humor horse had
stamina to spare when racing for owner
WinStar Farm and reached his peak
form, aside from his Belmont win, at age 4.
Those attributes make Drosselmeyer, who
now stands at WinStar, a sire whose first
crop might be best perceived as long-term
investments by buyers with Triple Crown
and Breeders’ Cup aspirations.
The reverse would be true for Uncle Mo,
the champion 2-year-old male of 2010 who
now stands at Ashford Stud. The 5-yearold son of Indian Charlie was the textbook
definition of a ready-made racehorse in
2010, when he achieved two triple-digit
Beyer Speed Figures in his first three
starts and tallied two impressive Grade
1 wins in that span. He has 26 weanlings
cataloged at Keeneland and three at FasigTipton.

Tom Keyser

Drosselmeyer will be represented by 29 weanlings at Keeneland’s November sale.
Three-time Eclipse Award winner Gio
Ponti has 19 weanlings cataloged at the
November sales (16 at Keeneland, three at
Fasig-Tipton). Castleton Lyons’s 7-year-old
son of Tale of the Cat is one of two prominent turf horses whose first crop arrive

at the sales this fall, with the other being
Ashford’s Cape Blanco. That Irish-bred
5-year-old, 2011’s champion turf male, is
by the incredibly successful Galileo and
has 21 weanlings cataloged at Keeneland
along with one at Fasig-Tipton.

drf.com/breeding

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Sunday, November 3, 2013

PAGE 19

Fasig-Tipton offers premier stock
By Patrick Reed
Fasig-Tipton’s one-session November
sale, to begin on Monday at 4 p.m. Eastern at the company’s Newtown Paddocks
headquarters in Lexington, Ky., arrives
on the heels of North American horse
racing’s showcase event and heralds what
is always a hectic, eventful two weeks in
the auction sector.
The November sale habitually brings
to market several broodmare prospects
fresh off performances in the previous
weekend’s Breeders’ Cup races and is held
just prior to Keeneland’s lengthy November breeding stock sale. This year’s edition
will occur the night before the 10-day
Keeneland sale begins and contains a bevy
of accomplished racemares heading into
their second careers as well as a group of
weanlings, several from first-crop sires.
North American sales have enjoyed
their best year in recent history as they
recover from a deep and painful market
correction that affected the entire Thoroughbred industry in 2008-10. This
summer and fall’s yearling auctions have
posted encouraging results, to say the
least, and many within the industry expect
that momentum to carry on through the
breeding stock sales, as buyers begin to
take a long-term view toward the prospect
of an even stronger economic climate in
the years ahead.
The Jockey Club’s release of foal-crop
and mares-bred statistics for 2013 indicated that the decline in North American
breeding activity, though still evident, has
slowed. This offers added support to the
notion that equilibrium of sorts between
buyers and sellers is being reached, which
should continue to strengthen the market.
The Fasig-Tipton November sale is
unique due to its brevity and its concentration of top-class broodmares but still
should give an early indication of how the
breeding stock sales season will play out
(the first sizable mixed sale, held by the
Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. in mid-October,
posted healthy gains in nearly every category, albeit at a lower market level). The
general sense among consignors is one of
confidence in the North American bloodstock market’s recovery, tempered with a
realistic outlook about the larger economy
and its nagging problems.
“It was nice to see some new names
buying some of those seven-figure horses
[at the Keeneland September yearling
sale], but I think the most positive thing I

Barbara D. Livingston

In Lingerie, in foal to Frankel, will be sold at the Fasig-Tipton sale on Monday.
could see from it is that it looked to me like
the buyers of most of those type of horses
were going to stay in North America,”
said Guinness McFadden, sales director
at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky.
“That’s a definite shift from where we’ve
been the last few years. The stock markets
are at an all-time high, or close to it, but
it doesn’t feel to me like the economy is
rolling like it should, so I don’t think we’re
going to see massive gains. But I expect
[the November sales] to be really strong –
as strong as we’ve seen in the last five or
six years.”
Those sensational results at the recent

Keeneland September sale have created
a strong tailwind heading into both the
Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland November
auctions, especially for consignors with
elite horses to offer. That should help
maintain a high level of trade as buyers
seek to replenish their stables with both
young, well-bred foals and the mares who
can produce them, with an eye on next
year’s yearling sales.
“We’re excited,” said Meg Levy of Bluewater Sales. “I think the good stuff that’s
happened this summer and fall in the

Continued on page 20

PAGE 20

Sunday, November 3, 2013

DAILY RACING FORM

drf.com/breeding

Continued from page 19
yearling sales and hopefully the economy
looking a little more positive will take
us to the place where mares are more
commercial again. You need the factory.”
This issue went to press before the
Breeders’ Cup on Friday and Saturday,
but regardless of the results, Three Chimneys will be bringing a strong group of
fillies and mares to the Fasig-Tipton
November sale. Among other notables,
it is consigning Grade 2 winner Authenticity, a 6-year-old Quiet American mare
entered in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and
Mizdirection, a 5-year-old daughter of
Mizzen Mast and the defending winner
of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint,
who was entered in that race again. Both
are offered as racing or broodmare prospects.
A variety of additional stakes-winning
broodmares or broodmare prospects
are sprinkled throughout Fasig-Tipton’s
November catalog, and one Grade 1
winner who should vie for the sale’s top
price will be the Bluewater-consigned
In Lingerie, a $700,000 earner by classic winner and stamina-influence sire
Empire Maker. In Lingerie is offered in
foal to two-time European Horse of the
Year Frankel, who stood his first season
as a stallion this year and attracted a
star-studded book of mares from around
the world. Grade 1 winner Mi Sueno, by
Pulpit, will be offered in foal to Frankel by
Bluewater as Hip No. 195.

Havre de Grace, the 2011 Horse of the Year, sold for $10 million last November.
Last year’s Fasig-Tipton November
auction, paced by a $10 million top price
for 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de
Grace, posted major gains in gross (up 84
percent) and average (up 67 percent) along

with a slight dip in median and a higher
buyback rate. Havre de Grace, bought by
Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm after
a protracted bidding process, set a world
record for a broodmare prospect.

Mastercraftsman, a dual Group 1 winner at age 2, has sired 24 winners, including four stakes winners, in his first crop.

JOHN P.
SPARKMAN
Sea The Stars, Europe’s Horse of the
Year in 2009, naturally dominated the hype
machine surrounding prospects for leading European freshman sire this year, and,
indeed, he has done well enough, with 10
winners through last Monday, including
Group 3 winner My Titania.
However, the standout among first-year
sires in Europe has been the horse who
came closest to beating Sea The Stars
during his undefeated 3-year-old season:
Mastercraftsman, who forced the champion into an all-out drive for his one-length
victory in the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes.
Mastercraftsman
almost
certainly
sealed freshman sire honors in Europe
for 2013 on Oct. 26, when his sons Kingston Hill and Craftsman won the Group 1
Racing Post Trophy and the Group 3 Killavullan Stakes, respectively.
By Danehill Dancer out of Starlight

Dreams, by Black Tie Affair, Mastercraftsman was bred in Ireland by Paul
Shanahan’s Lynch Bages and purchased
privately by the Coolmore partnership
of Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and
Derrick Smith, for whom Shanahan
serves as racing manager. The precocious
Mastercraftsman won his first start at 2
at The Curragh in May 2008 and returned
to that course almost two months later to
capture the Group 2 Railway Stakes. Both
wins came over yielding ground that never
really suited him.
Mastercraftsman showed a much better
turn of foot on firm ground a month later,
running away with the Group 1 Phoenix
Stakes and beating Art Connoisseur by
4 1/2 lengths. In his next start, heavy going
bogged him down again in the Group 1
National Stakes at seven furlongs, and he
just held on to beat Shaweel by a nose.
That third hard race might have taken
too much out of him because he did not
show his true form three weeks later
at Longchamp, finishing fourth behind
winner Naaqoos in the Group 1 Prix JeanLuc Lagardere.
Despite that defeat, Mastercraftsman

was rated as Europe’s champion 2-year-old
male, but he did not have a prep race before
the 2000 Guineas the following spring. The
tall, leggy colt did not appear comfortable
coming down the hill into the Dip, and by
the time he began to rally up the final hill
at Newmarket, Sea The Stars was gone,
and Mastercraftsman finished fifth, beaten
4 1/4 lengths.
With Sea The Stars awaiting the Epsom
Derby, Mastercraftsman had a much easier
task in the Irish 2000 Guineas, and he duly
romped to a 4 1/2-length win over Rayeni.
Next, in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace
Stakes at Royal Ascot, Mastercraftsman
showed his Newmarket form was all wrong
by beating Delegator (who finished second
behind Sea The Stars in the English Guineas) by a neck.
Mastercraftsman’s
trainer,
Aidan
O’Brien, had been trying to beat Sea The
Stars all season, sending out Fame And
Glory to run second to the champion in
the Epsom Derby and Rip Van Winkle to
occupy the same position in the Group 1
Eclipse Stakes. Mastercraftsman made

Continued on page 22

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Sunday, November 3, 2013

DAILY RACING FORM

drf.com/breeding

Continued from page 21
Sea The Stars work harder than he had all
season in the Juddmonte International at
York at about 1 5/16 miles, as he followed
his pacesetters Georgebernardshaw and
Set Sail before taking the lead smoothly
two furlongs out, with Sea The Stars trailing. For almost a furlong, Sea The Stars
could make little impression on Mastercraftsman, but he finally wore him down
inside the last 100 yards to win by a length.
Mastercraftsman tried Sea The Stars
once more in the Irish Champion Stakes,
but on softer going was beaten five lengths
in third, with Fame And Glory second.
Mastercraftsman subsequently easily
handled Dundalk’s synthetic surface in the
Group 3 Diamond Stakes, which served as
a prep for the Breeders’ Cup, contested in
2009 over Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride track. In
the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, Mastercraftsman broke slowly from his inside post and
never was able to find a way out. The colt
stuck his head inside pacesetter Midshipman at the eighth pole but then had to
check when the hole closed and finished
an unlucky fourth behind Furthest Land,
beaten 1 1/2 lengths.
Mastercraftsman retired to Coolmore
Stud’s Irish headquarters in 2010 with
the reputation as the best son of Danehill
Dancer, England’s leading sire in 2009.
Physically, though, he has little in common
with his compact, muscular sire. Standing about 2 1/2 inches taller than Danehill
Dancer, Mastercraftsman is a massive,
powerful individual, perhaps a touch
upright in his pasterns, and more closely
resembles some of the leggier high-class
stayers along his female line.
Shanahan purchased Mastercraftsman’s dam, Starlight Dreams, in foal to
Luhuk, for only $40,000 at the 2001 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, with
Kate Conroy signing the ticket. Her third
foal, Genuine Devotion, by Rock of Gibraltar, had already won the Grade 3 Locust
Grove Handicap at Churchill Downs by
the time Mastercraftsman came along, and
Mastercraftsman’s full sister Famous, a
$1.46 million Goffs yearling, later placed in
the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes.
Starlight Dreams’s half-brother Matahif, by Wassl, was a stakes winner in
England, and two of her half-sisters were
stakes producers, but the real attraction
for an ambitious breeder like Shanahan
was her more distant female family. Her
dam, Reves Celestes, by Lyphard, was a
half-sister to English highweighted stayer

Celestial Storm, by Roberto, and to Group
2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Thawakib, by
Sadler’s Wells, the dam of Prix de l’Arc de
Triomphe winner Sakhee, by Bahri.
Another half-sister, Le Vague a l’Ame,
by Vaguely Noble, was the dam of Grade 1
winner River Memories, by Riverman, and
the family traces back to foundation mare
Dangerous Dame, by Nasrullah, the ancestress of Broad Brush, Exceller, Capote, and
many others.
Mastercraftsman’s combination of race
record, conformation, and pedigree guaranteed a large and varied book at Coolmore, and his first Northern Hemisphere
crop of 131 2-year-olds already includes
24 winners through last Monday. Four of
them are stakes winners, headed by Kingston Hill, Craftsman, and Group 3 Prestige
Stakes winner Amazing Maria.
Bred in England by Ridgecourt Stud,
Kingston Hill is the fifth foal but only
the second winner out of Audacieuse, a
talented daughter of the great sire and
broodmare sire Rainbow Quest. Trained
in France by Elie Lellouche, Audacieuse
placed twice at 2 but came into her own
at 3, winning her maiden in her second
sophomore start. Subsequently unplaced
in a couple of Group 3 events, she returned
to winning form in the Prix de Liancourt
at Longchamp at about 1 1/4 miles in the
autumn, beating Slippering by five lengths.
Unplaced again behind Petrushka in the
Group 1 Prix de l’Opera, Audacieuse closed
out her career with another easy win going

about 1 5/16 miles in the Group 3 Prix de
Flore at Saint-Cloud.
Audacieuse is a half-sister to Group 3
winner Waiter’s Dream, by Oasis Dream,
and multiple stakes winner Lord Jim, by
Kahyasi, and her dam, the winner Sarah
Georgina, by Persian Bold, is a half-sister
to French classic winner Danseuse du
Soir, by Thatching, and two other stakes
winners from a family tracing back to
the great Orby mare Orlass. Orlass is the
ancestress of innumerable top European
racehorses, including Hethersett, Providential, Narrator, Saraca, and American
standout Droll Role.
As we have learned all too often, one crop
does not a sire make, but there is every
reason to think that Mastercraftsman’s
early success will continue. He has shuttled
each season to the Southern Hemisphere,
and it will be no surprise if his progeny find
comparable success Down Under, given the
almost complete dominance of the Danehill male line in the Antipodes.
Whether that will make Mastercraftsman a better sire than his more heralded
contemporary Sea The Stars is another
matter entirely. Mastercraftsman was a
dual Group 1 winner at 2, while Sea The
Stars was only a Group 2 winner as a juvenile, so the latter’s progeny are expected to
improve more with age.
Still, given Mastercraftsman’s head
start, Sea The Stars will have to be very
good to catch him, as he did in the Juddmonte International.